For 20 years, GLAAD has closely monitored LGBT
media images. The entertainment industry, by and
large, has churned out images of gays and
lesbians, and GLAAD has made great strides to
ensure these groups are represented fairly and
accurately. Transgender images are not as common
and represent a community that's still
misunderstood and ridiculed on screen and off.

Sadly our old machine has moved on to greener pastures and we need a
replacement to allow duping copies of some IFGE tapes from the high quality
masters we have in SVHS format. If anyone out there has a working machine,
or would like to donate a new one, we could sure use it.

Please note: This must be a SVHS not the more available VHS machine

West Hollywood, CA: Trans/Giving, a showcase and display of art, music, performance, and literature from trans/genderqueer/intersex artists, holds a special benefit show on Saturday February 19, at 7 pm at Great Hall in Plummer Park, located at 7377 Santa Monica Blvd. near Santa Monica and Martel. All proceeds will go to Aide To Sri Lankan Tsunami Victims (ATSLTV).

The Houston Transgender Unity Banquet will be held at the Westchase Hilton,Grand Ballroom, 9999 Westheimer in Houston Texas, on April 16, 2005. Cocktails and reception begin at 6:30pm, dinner will be served at 8:00pm. This years Guest Speaker will be Annise Parker, Well known out and proud lesbian and Houston City Comptroller.

Please forward this ?Call for Papers? to anyone you think may be interested in participating.

Deadline for submissions is March 21, 2005

A new anthology about our Spirituality is soon to be published. We are looking for submissions from people who identify as either Transgender, Transsexual, Intersex, Gender Queer, FTM, MTF, Butch, Femme, Cross-Dressers, Drag Kings, Drag Queens, Androgynous or beyond the traditional identifications as listed.

2. Include a short biography (no more than 200 words) that lets us know how you identify in the Transgender Community.

3. For purposes of this book, we are also including some astrological information for each section that will not be linked to your essay.
Birth Date ____________
Birth Time ____________ AM or PM (circle one)
City, State, Country _____________________________

4. The submission regards your spirituality and not so much your birth religion or the church you may currently attend. Feel free to respond in any way you would like to be heard on this topic.
Your essay or poem can be any length that gets your point across clearly about your spirituality.

Some questions to help you think about how you may wish to formulate your essay or poem include:
Define your spiritual nature, experiences and practices.
Do you connect with your God/Goddess/Supreme Being/Spirit regularly?
Have the mainstream churches provided you with the spiritual connection you need or seek?

January 12, 2005
The Illinois House of Representatives today passed a bill prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation, voting 65 to 51. The bill addresses discrimination in employment, housing, lending and public accomodations and includes transgender people in its definition of sexual orientation. The Illinois Senate had already passed the legislation by a slim 30 - 27 margin on January 10.

- For the past 13 years I?ve worked for a county agency as a behavior specialist. My job responsibilities include psychological and behavioral assessments, client rights investigations, and the development and monitoring of behavioral intervention plans. I work 40 hours a week and try to cram my other activities and nightly sleep into the remaining hours.

So, this is the part of the column where Monica gets to be funny and clever. I get to spin words in order to bring the reader into a fantasy world, or create an alternative reality. It is my quarterly moment, my chance to escape into another realm, be creative, to dance within the beauty of the English language. It is the time when I open my soul for others to see.

My partner and I are considering
having a woman carry our child through surrogacy. We?re not biased as to whether we have a boy or a girl, just as long as
the baby is healthy. What are your thoughts about having opposite gender role models in the child?s life? We?re aware of some studies that reflect that the children of gay and lesbian parents do very well socially, but we feel that our child, whether it be a boy or a girl, should get to know the ?culture? of the opposite sex. Is having our sisters and our own moms in the child?s life enough, or should we seek out another individual to be in his or her life?